Maximum Exposure: The Heartlands Series

by Harper, Jenny

  At the end of June, Jay called everyone into a meeting. They could tell, from his body language, that the blow they’d all fought to stave off was about to fall.

  ‘When I arrived in this office, just a few months ago,’ Jay said, speaking into absolute silence, ‘I was a conceited git who thought he knew it all.’ There were a few murmurs of dissent. ‘There’s no need to be kind. I look back at the person I was then and shudder.’ He paused and looked around. ‘But you’ve changed that. All of you. You’ve changed me. I used to think the only place worth being was London, the great metropolis. I thought that by taking a job in Hailesbank I was really scraping the barrel. And heaven knows why, but I thought that after television news reporting and presenting, running a small local newspaper would be a piece of cake.’ He ran his hand through his hair and looked around. There was no sharp suit today. No striped tie. He was wearing denim jeans with fashionable soft brown leather trainers and a washed-blue polo shirt. He looked oddly young. ‘I was wrong on all counts. Running the Herald was the biggest challenge I ever faced. I found that actually, I began to value the things that Hailesbank offered me. Fresh air. A sense of community. People who care about people. The biggest regret of my life is that I have let you down. This week we will be printing the last edition of The Hailesbank Herald.’

  The silence continued. It was hardly a shock, but there was a terrible finality about hearing the words they’d all dreaded. No one seemed to know what to say, so no one said anything. Jay pursed his lips, spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness, and continued, ‘There will be a process to go through, of course. A few of you will be given the opportunity to work for The Stoneyford Echo…’

  ‘Bugger that,’ said Ma Ruby stoutly. ‘What would Angus MacMorrow say?’

  Daisy, remembering how news of the threat of closure had felled Big Angus outright, had no doubt about what he’d say. And it wouldn’t be polite.

  ‘… others will be offered a redundancy package. I’m sorry, guys. I thought we’d done enough to turn the paper round, but the Messenger has knocked our future firmly on the head.’

  He was a changed figure from the rather bored-looking, egotistical man who had walked through the door back in February. Was the failure of the paper his fault? Daisy’s view was that it had been the competitive market that had finished them off, not Jay’s leadership. But one thing was certain in her mind – he was a much more likeable person than he had been five months ago.

  ‘What will you do, Jay?’ Daisy asked afterwards, as they milled around aimlessly, discussing what had happened, each worrying about the future.

  His smile was rueful. ‘Oddly, this closure has come at rather a good time for me. It seems crass to admit it, when everyone is so down, but I’d say – rather cautiously – that I’ve started mending relations with my wife again.’

  ‘That’s great.’ Everyone has someone to love. Except me …

  ‘Yes.’ He smiled, briefly, apologetically. ‘I thought I was doing so well, going clean, starting to turn the paper around, feeling I had even made a few friends here –’

  ‘You were, Jay.’ Impulsively, Daisy laid a hand on his arm. She’d warmed to Jay considerably since the Kelso incident.

  ‘Thank you, Daisy. Ironically, it wasn’t until Amelia realised that things were starting to go wrong that we began to get close again.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘Ironic, because she’d kicked me out saying that unless I made a success of my life she never wanted to speak to me again. And now, job-wise, I don’t know what I’ll be doing. A five-month stint as the editor of a failed newspaper is hardly the recommendation for a high flying post, but if I’ve got Amelia by my side again …’ He straightened up and an air of resolution returned to his body language, ‘… I feel that things will be all right.’

  ‘I’m sure they will.’ Daisy smiled. Jay would be all right. But as for what would happen to her ... her mouth twitched and the small movement changed her expression from sadness into anxiety. She’d been right, the night of Jack’s engagement party, when she finally realised what an arse she’d made of herself. She had lost everything. Every single thing she cared about. Even her camera kit belonged to the newspaper.

  ‘What will you do, Daisy?’

  ‘Oh, I’ll find something,’ she said airily. ‘Don’t worry about me.’

  Ben, laying out the last ever pages of the paper on the other side of the room, was worrying about Daisy. He’d spent a great deal of time worrying about Daisy ever since he’d gone to pick her up from Jack Hedderwick’s house the night she had twisted her ankle.

  ‘Take care of her, will you?’ Jack had said to him when he arrived, drawing him aside to explain what had happened.

  ‘She’s hardly mine to look after,’ Ben said stiffly.

  ‘No? She always speaks very highly of you.’

  ‘Even so.’ He could hardly accuse Jack of anything. It would be easy to lay blame at his door, to accuse him of misleading Daisy, but actually, she had propelled herself along that particular cul-de-sac. ‘Where is she?’

  Daisy, sitting forlornly in the dining room, looked whiter than paper. She was wearing the skimpiest of dresses, a little black affair held together by hope and prayer. Her feet were bare. One ankle had been neatly bandaged. A pair of very high-heeled purple shoes sat on the floor beside her. There seemed to be earth in her hair and there were grimy streaks down her face where she appeared to have wiped tears off with grubby hands. Ben longed to scoop her up in his arms and protect her, banish the miserable delusions that had haunted her, set her back on her feet. He wanted to watch her beauty blossom in the sunshine of his love, but her face was guarded, defensive.

  ‘Hello, Diz.’

  ‘Hello, Ben. Thanks for coming. I’m sorry to bother you but there really wasn’t anyone else.’

  Last on the list. That was how low she rated him. ‘No bother. Glad to help.’

  Helping her to her feet, he realised that it was the first time he had touched her since she’d snuggled up to him on the sofa after the concert. That night he’d thought, for a few sublime minutes, that they were going to get it together. Wrong. She’d never thought of him in that way. She’d had eyes only for Jack. Ben’s heart melted with the pity of it. But Daisy didn’t want his pity and she didn’t want his love. Her body felt stiff and resistant and it seemed to him that she leaned as far away from him as the need for his support would allow.

  They drove all the way back to the cottage in silence.

  ‘I don’t think I can manage going to the cottage,’ she said in a small voice when he turned off the engine.

  ‘Wait there, I’ll come round.’

  She took his hand, needing help to get out of the car, and she put her arm round his waist, leaning on him heavily as she hopped to the front door.

  ‘I’ll manage now. Thanks, Ben.’

  ‘Sure? Lizzie’s away, there’s no one to help you get to –’

  ‘I’ll manage.’

  ‘OK, fine, if you’re sure.’

  There was no option but to leave. His car, ever temperamental, started first time, just when he might have used it as an excuse to stay – at least then he would have been able to keep a watchful eye on Daisy, make sure she was managing. Sometimes she seemed to need him, then she seemed so damned determined to manage on her own.

  He reversed into the road and turned the nose towards home. It all felt horribly final.

  A Human Resources team from the central office of the Havering Group was dispatched to Hailesbank to sort everything out at the paper. Ma was over retirement age and got her pension. Murdoch was only a year away from retiring and was happy to go early. Dave was offered, and accepted, a job with The Stoneyford Echo. Sharon was also offered a job, but at a more junior level than her current position. She decided to turn it down.

  Daisy, much to her surprise, was offered a post too. She decided not to accept it, which was even more surprising because she hated insecurity, so the decision was completely out of charac
ter and certainly well out of her comfort zone.

  ‘Surely it’s a good offer?’ was her father’s comment when she told them.

  She’d anticipated his disapproval but she no longer cared what he thought. ‘It’s not bad,’ she conceded.

  ‘Then what will you do, Daisy?’ her mother put in. ‘Why not accept?’

  Why not indeed? She’d had three days to think about the situation. It had been the oddest of years. Angus’s death. Ben coming back. Her naïve delusions about Jack. Fighting to save the paper. Failing.

  Feeling that … feeling that there must be more to life than this, that maybe, after nearly ten years as a newspaper photographer, there might be something else waiting for her and that now was the time to find it.

  Feeling that she’d missed out on something really special, a chance of building the kind of sweetly loving, strong, mutually caring relationship that maybe only came once in a lifetime.

  Wondering whether Ben Gillies had ever felt anything for her, in the way that she was beginning to think that she felt for him.

  Realising that her stupid, blind refusal to accept that Jack Hedderwick really did not love her any more might just have driven Ben into Lizzie’s arms.

  She’d been looking in the wrong direction all the time. And now there was only one course of action. She had to get out of Hailesbank, out of Scotland, out of her comfort zone, away from anywhere Ben and Lizzie might be.

  ‘I need a break. That’s all. Sharon’s asked me to go on holiday with her, just for a couple of weeks. We’re going to France. She’s found a great deal in Nice and we can fly direct from Edinburgh. I’m getting some redundancy money, enough to keep me going for a while. After that, we’ll see. I’ll find something. I can always freelance for a while.’

  Her mother looked dubious. ‘Well, no one would grudge you a break, Daisy. I just hope you’ll find something when you get back.’

  ‘Don’t expect us to support you,’ her father grunted.

  As if , thought Daisy. ‘It’ll all be fine. It’s just a holiday.’

  Two weeks in the sun. Two weeks to relax and empty her mind. Two weeks to consider the future.

  What could be better?

  PART 2

  Chapter One

  Edinburgh airport was busy. Where was everyone going? Would she find the right check-in? Daisy, entering the airport through the automatic sliding doors, was fretting.

  Tickets – yes. Passport – safe. Euros – yup. Credit card – check. Certain she had everything she needed, she arrived early at the airport, was third in the queue and checked through in record quick time. Sharon was right – there was nothing to it. Hovering uncertainly at the bookshop upstairs, she decided to go through Security before shopping. That way she could relax. She’d agreed to meet Sharon in the departure lounge rather than at the check-in, because Sir Cosmo Fleming had insisted that he would deliver his new paramour to the airport himself.

  ‘He’d take you too, Dais, but he’s going on to the architectural salvage yard in Leith to flog an old door and some ironmongery that’s been lying around in his stables, so the back of the Volvo’ll be full. Sorry.’ She pulled a face – apologetic, but still, a kind of you’ve-got-to-understand-I’m-in-his-life-now face. ‘I’ll be there in plenty of time, don’t worry. But you’ll be more comfortable air-side. You can just relax.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it be better if we …’

  ‘Don’t worry, Daisy.’

  She had worried, but she didn’t want Sharon to think of her as completely hopeless. She was determined that this was going to be the start of her new life. The old, disorganised Daisy would be banished.

  In the departure lounge there was an air of expectancy. Everyone was on the move, going somewhere different. Excited by the atmosphere, she wandered around, observing. There were businessmen and women, easily spotted with their smart dark suits, briefcases, and mobile phones, holidaymakers like herself, and a rowdy group of girls, headed off to the sun for a hen weekend, judging by the outrageous accessories they were sporting. She pressed her face up against one of the huge glass windows that overlooked the runways. The sky was heavily overcast and it was raining lightly. Small rivulets of rainwater trickled down the window and splashed onto the tarmac below. She could see them forming puddles that reflected the grey skies above. A plane outside the window started pushing back, ready to join the queue for take off. Soon she’d be on one too, heading off to the sun. She shivered in excited anticipation and checked the departure boards for the tenth time. Still an hour and a half to go. Too early to worry about Sharon, but she couldn’t quite quell her anxiety all the same.

  Calm down Daisy. Just enjoy yourself.

  She queued for a newspaper and a coffee, settled comfortably, unfolded her Guardian, and scanned the jobs pages. Did she want to carry on working for a paper or do something else? She glanced at her watch. There was only an hour to go now. Where was Sharon? Maybe she should call her to check. She pulled her mobile out of her bag and switched it on. It rang at once. Please dial 121. She accessed her voice mail.

  ‘Daisy? Hi, it’s Sharon at seven thirty. Thought I’d call really early to give you some notice. Listen, something’s come up and I’m not going to be able to come with you. Sorry. Call me back and I’ll explain.’

  Not able to come with you. Stunned, Daisy replayed the message to be sure she had heard Sharon correctly. Not able to come with you ... not able ... come ... not... The words boomeranged around her skull until she could feel the beginnings of a migraine.

  What could have happened? Had she had an accident? Come down with food poisoning? Had someone died? If she’d picked up Sharon’s message first thing she’d at least have been able to make a decision about going, but now she was checked through, more or less committed.

  Not able to come with you. Her hands trembling, she dialled Sharon’s number.

  ‘Hi, Sharon here.’

  ‘Sharon. Are you all right?’

  ‘Oh hi, Daisy. Listen, I’m really sorry to let you down. Honestly. But you’ll never guess what’s happened.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’s proposed.’ Sharon’s voice was ecstatic. ‘Cosmo has proposed to me! I was so stunned, honest, I never saw that coming. But he took me out for dinner last night, really romantic, he took me to Tom Kitchen’s in Edinburgh, and we walked down to the sea afterwards, under the stars, it was so beautiful, you just can’t imagine. Well what could I say? I know it’s been a bit of a whirlwind but of course I had to accept. He’s such a dear. I’m so lucky, aren’t I? And just think, Daisy,’ she prattled on, oblivious to Daisy’s astonished silence, ‘I’ll be Lady Sharon Fleming. What about that? Huh?’ She paused at last.

  Daisy couldn’t speak. She was too stunned.

  ‘Daisy? You still there?’

  She gulped. ‘Yes. Sure. I’m … congratulations. But …’

  ‘Of course Cosmo said I should just come away with you anyway, he’s so unselfish, the sweetheart. But how could I? I mean, at a time like this. There’s so much to think about, so many plans to be made, the announcements, telling my family, an engagement party, wedding plans … I mean, you can see it would be impossible, can’t you?’

  ‘Couldn’t it have waited a couple of weeks?’ Daisy asked timidly.

  ‘Well no, not really Dais. How could it? I mean, you can see … impossible … need to get on … must talk to Lady Fleming … so exciting … can’t wait … Daisy? Are you there?’

  ‘Oh, sorry. I was just –’ Just shattered at being abandoned like this? Just pissed off with Sharon? Just depressed that no one, but no one, seemed to want to spend time with her? ‘– just thinking. I’m at the airport. In the departure lounge. I’ve only just checked my phone.’

  ‘Really? Well, go, girl, go. You’ll love it. Great little hotel. Lovely place. You can’t go wrong.’ Sharon’s excitement was still evident. ‘I’m really sorry I won’t be there, Dais. Honest. I was looking forward to a bit of sunshine, French grub, and v
in du table, lots of it. But hey, to be honest, I got a better offer.’ She laughed. ‘Listen, have a great time. Send me a postcard. And when you get back, I’ll tell you all about the wedding plans.’

  ‘Right.’ Daisy’s head was spinning. She should have known better than to have trusted Sharon, however nice she’d seemed recently. Sharon had thrown Tiny Ted in the river. She should never have relied on Sharon for anything.

  ‘Bye, Dais. Sorry again. Honest.’

  She rang off.

  Honest? That was hardly a word Daisy would use to describe Sharon Eddy. She didn’t blame Sharon for accepting Cosmo’s offer – but couldn’t she have put off the arrangements just for one week, instead of abandoning her here?

  ‘Sorry!’

  A passer-by knocked over her coffee and dashed off to his gate with a glance of apology and a shrug of the shoulders. Daisy watched the stain spread over her Guardian. If there were any media jobs in the pages, they’d be obliterated now. Maybe it was a sign. It didn’t matter. What did? She picked up the dripping pages and crumpled them into a ball, walked slowly to the waste bin and tossed the paper in. Her hands felt sticky and dirty.

  She couldn’t go back to the cottage, not with Ben and Lizzie there, and there was nowhere else she could go. She stared at the bin sightlessly. Around her, people were moving to a gate, boarding. What was she to do? Go on her own? The thought was terrifying. Automatically, her hand went to her pocket for the comforting snout of Tiny Ted before halting at the seam as she remembered. Tiny Ted was long gone, cast into the fast-flowing waters of the Hailes by Sharon Eddy, her one-time colleague and so-called friend.